


Tarnished But So Grand

by fandomwolfx



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: F/M, S5 AU, Varchie!Centric, anti-barchie, mentions of Betty Cooper - Freeform, mentions of Chad Gekko
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-12
Updated: 2021-01-12
Packaged: 2021-03-17 03:29:04
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,505
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28718100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fandomwolfx/pseuds/fandomwolfx
Summary: Seven years later Archie and Veronica get stuck in the High School together
Relationships: Archie Andrews/Veronica Lodge
Comments: 9
Kudos: 35





	Tarnished But So Grand

**Author's Note:**

> A few things that I think is important to know before you read this fic: 
> 
> 1\. Yes, the title is from Taylor Swifts ‘Ivy’  
> 2\. This isn’t the healthiest version of Varchie that is out there, but I tried to deal with the mess canon has presented in the most authentic way and this was the result  
> 3\. Speaking of canon this fic is up to date with all of the spoilers of s5 so you should probably be caught up with all of them before you read

Archie shook the music sheets vigorously hoping the half cup of cold coffee he just spilled over them hadn’t done too much damage, whilst also hoping the new principal of Riverdale High wouldn’t be too annoyed by the ring the mug had left on the music room's wooden desk. 

Seven years after graduating and Archie was still managing to have a bad reputation around the staff.

He technically wasn’t even allowed to be in the school building considering he didn’t work there, but Kevin had graciously let him in so he could use the room every now and then. Shoving the sheets into his bag and deciding that the damage had already been done, Archie looked out the window to be greeted with inky black and his own reflection thanks to the classroom’s artificial light.

Fumbling around his bag and scrunching up the music sheets he had just so desperately tried to save, he finds his phone at the very bottom, scrolling past all the messages from Betty to try and find the time: 

20:42 

Kevin had given him a ride over, but Archie knows for a fact that he wouldn’t answer his phone now as him, Moose and Mr. Keller were going out for a meal.

Sighing, Archie looks at the timestamp from Betty’s messages, interrupted by the low-battery notification first before seeing that the last message was from over an hour ago. Hoping that she still might answer he rings her and waits a whole 10 seconds before the call is disconnected and he is met with her answering machine that he’s sure she hasn’t changed since college. 

She told him a few days ago that she had plans with Charles this week that she was dreading and he figures that must be where she is now because she isn’t usually unavailable. Looking at his phone he now sees it's only got 3 percent left so there’s no point in wasting another call on her. 

Getting a little panicked now as Archie really didn’t want to walk home in Riverdale’s cool February air in nothing but a henley, corduroy jacket and flimsy trainers he’s positively certain he would slip in on the ice; Archie rings the one person he knows is liable to always answer the phone. At least she used to. 

Unlike Betty, the repetitive ring of the phone seems to go on forever, and echo throughout the room he’s just about to give up when the buzz stops indicating that she’s actually picked up. 

“Archie?”

“Veronica, hi” he says a little too quickly, “Are you busy at the moment?”

“No… Are you okay? Is everyone’s safe”

He can practically see her scrunched brow on the other end of the line, as they don’t really speak to each other individually anymore since they all came back to Riverdale, and after living the life they have he can understand why her first instinct is that someone’s been seriously hurt. 

“Everyone’s fine” he promises “It’s just that I’m stuck at the highschool and I was wondering if you could maybe give me a ride back to Elm Street because I didn’t drive here”

There’s a moment's pause and for a second he thinks that his cell has died before she had a chance to reply.

“Yeah of course, that’s fine yeah, I should be 15 minutes, I’ll just wait in the parking lot- it will be the pink one and I’ll ring when-”

“Wait-”

“What?”

“You’ll probably have to come inside the school, my phones about to die so I won’t know when you’re outside and I don’t want to sound rude Veronica, but I really don’t want to stand outside in this sort of weather” 

“I see you’re just as organised as teenage Archie” she replies, the sarcasm not being missed even by someone as oblivious to these sorts of things as Archie, “Well, I guess I’ll see you in 15”

“Great. You’re a lifesaver, I’ll meet you in the foyer… bye”

She hangs up the phone without saying bye and Archie spends the next five minutes of the fifteen with tremors in his hands, consumed by the thought of the casual and instinctual ‘love you’ that seemed to be on the tip of his tongue as he went to end the call, reminiscent of a time seven years ago when Veronica picking him up from the music room at dark hours was an almost regular occurrence. He then spends the next ten at the foyer of the school thinking about the last time they were alone at the high school together was most likely when he ran after her at prom when he’d just admitted something was going on with himself and one Ms. Betty Cooper. The blue mirage of her dress turning round corridor corners as the blue in his heart blossomed. 

X 

She’s not wearing blue tonight, in fact she seems to be wearing a t-shirt with lace, little satin mauve shorts and fuzzy flip-flops that he knows she wears before getting ready to go to sleep.  
Feeling guilty that he had clearly gotten her out of bed, he holds the double door open for her and watches as she jogs up the steps, arms folded across her chest as she attempts to battle the cold, and if either of them notice that he lingers a little too long on her legs as she does so he’s glad that she doesn’t comment on it. 

He nearly chastises her for not wearing her glasses whilst she was diving, knowing that her eye sight is a lot worse than she lets on to most people, when a sinking feeling takes over his whole body as he realises that in the past seven years they’ve been strangers she’s probably gotten eye surgery or at the very least wears contacts now. 

He closes the door behind her and she cocks her head slightly to the side as she looks at him. 

“Okay, so are you ready to go because I really do not intend on spending a second longer in these hallowed halls than is deemed absolutely necessary” 

“Right” he says rubbing his hands together already feeling the chill of the evening air from the door being opened for merely a few seconds, “I left my phone in the music room, I’ll just be a second… you can stay here or-”

“I might not want to stay in this staph infection of a high school a second longer than I need to, but staying here alone why you go get your stuff is the exact same as every dumb blonde in every unpolitically correct horror film deciding to look in a basement after hearing an unwarranted sound… And you Archie Andrews no better than anyone that I am no dumb blonde” she says, the accusation in her voice seeming to incline with every word. 

Archie nods in response, sure that there’s a dumbfounded look on his face and extending his hand for Veronica to lead them back to the classroom. 

The distant memory of her clicking heels leading him out of a closet, dainty fingers wrapped around his wrist replaced with the clunky harsh sound of her flip-flops. 

It takes him mere minutes to collect his stuff and walk back to the school’s main entrance (this time Veronica is trailing behind him, the uneven sound of her footsteps telling him one of her shoes had half fallen off) but when he tugs at the front door it remains closed. 

So he gives it another tug, this one harsher than the last.

And one more. 

“Shit” he mutters 

“What’s wrong?” 

“The door’s jammed” he grunts whilst still fighting with the front door

“How, it was completely fine 5 minutes ago when you opened it for me?” he hears Veronica respond, and when he turns around to face her, expecting to see a frown etched on her face he instead realises he can hardly see the details of her face in the dark, which is also weird considering he could see her just fine before when… when the lights were on.

“Veronica… what time is it?”

“I don’t know, I left my cell in the car, I’m presuming just after nine?”

As soon as she says the number Archie is met with a memory of Kevin telling him that he’s fine to use the school’s facilities as long as he’s out by around eight-thirty because the janitors leave at nine and lock up. 

Letting go of the door and flexing his fingers trying to restart the circulation in them, he turns his whole body to face Veronica, his other arm scratching the back of his head as he admits that it is possible… highly likely in fact that they’re locked in. 

“Excuse me what did you just say” 

“I’m not one hundred percent certain” he admits, “The security in this place is so shit it wouldn’t surprise me if they’ve accidentally left one of the doors open”

Veronica doesn’t look convinced. 

“If you look on the west side of the building, i’ll try the east and then we can meet back at the student lounge and see if we found an exit, okay?”

“No, no, no, no” Veronica replies firmly with her hands placed in front of her, “I’m sorry mr. Fred Jones, but did you just suggest that we actually split up during this fiasco, you have to be kidding me” 

Rolling his eyes before continuing Archie retorts “seriously Veronica what is the worst that can be out there- monsters aren’t real you know” 

“This is Riverdale, there could be I don’t know a serial killer, a gargoyle king…” 

As she continues to list all the (somewhat plausible) horrors that could they face in the empty school, Archie takes the opportunity to reach forward to place his hands on her t-shirt clad shoulders and gently turns her so she’s facing the darkened corridors and walks her forward before moving his palm to the small of her back so that she has to continue moving, all the while she’s still complaining. 

X

After Veronica had successfully managed to convince Archie that looking for an open exit together was a much better idea than doing it alone, they both arrived at the student lounge untriumphant as all the doors (and lowerground windows) had been shut. 

Luckily, they had found their way into the closet that controlled the controls to the lights, both only knowing where it was located after a certain stint in junior year during a free period when Archie had dragged Veronica into a random closet and backed her into what appeared to be a wall but in reality was the the light control box causing an entire school black-out. 

Archie immediately flopped onto the old red couch that was somehow not falling apart at the seams and let out an exasperated sigh in the process, pinching the bridge of his nose wondering how he got himself stuck in this situation. 

Veronica on the other hand had sat herself on the leather armchair next to the couch, flip flops abandoned at the door and perfectly manicured toes perched on the side of the scratched wooden coffee table, littered with all sorts of fading and outdated advice pamphlets. 

It was at this moment that he realised she must be freezing. 

“I’m freezing”

He can’t say he’s surprised, even during the warmest months in Riverdale she still always insisted on sleeping under the covers, miraculously cold feet slipping under his calves because wearing socks in bed was ‘heathen behaviour Archiekins’.

“Archie, give me your jacket” 

“What” 

“I said give me your jacket, I mean it’s only fair considering you were the one who got me into this mess in the first place, if it wasn’t for you I would probably be in bed under my goose-down duvet reading Donna Tartt’s new release” 

He glanced over at her, getting ready to argue that her current bodily temperature isn’t really his problem (hasn’t been for seven years). When he looks at her face however, he can see that her normally olive-tanned complexion has lost most of its color, apart from her red nose that was steadily spreading to the apples of her cheeks. 

Dare he say it (and he certainly wouldn’t let her hear this) she almost looked pasty. 

Letting out a huff, he shrugs off his beige jacket and immediately feels guilty for not offering her it sooner as he feels the cold settle over his skin, despite his long sleeves and trousers - neither of which Veronica has. 

He stands up and leans over, expecting Veronica to reach out for the jacket, instead she simply sits up further and looks at him expectedly to which he chuckles and places the jacket over her shoulders before they both settle back into their chairs. 

Despite the newly claimed cord jacket, she still looks freezing and her tensed jaw suggests to him that she’s trying to stop herself from shivering. 

Resisting the urge to let out another huff of annoyance, Archie reaches down to his feet and swiftly removes his chucks and then his socks follow suit. Balling the black ankle socks into a ball he throws them in her direction before putting his shoes back on, trying not to grimace at the feeling of his bare foot touching the inside of the already ancient shoes.

Veronica smiles at him and he notices straight away that it’s the first one of the night that she’s given him and when she pulls the socks over her feet they seem to reach halfway up her leg. 

“Don’t say I never give you anything Lodge” he says pointing in her direction, eyes squinted

“Gekko” she replies automatically 

His hand immediately falters, and the joking look on his face disappears 

“Right… yeah, sorry… I forgot”

She raises her legs from the coffee table and brings them to rest on the seat so that her head is propped up on her knees 

“Actually” she replies, eyes off in the distant more having a conversation with herself than with him, “We probably won’t be stuck here too much longer, Chad likes to know where my location is at all times on my phone, so if we're stuck here for much longer he’s probably going to come up with some paranoid theory and come here to investigate himself”

She says the last part with a halfhearted chuckle, but Archie doesn’t find it very funny at all. A primal feeling in Archie’s gut that he hasn’t felt in a very long time seems to resurface, scratching at his very inside to break surface. 

He swallows, pushes it down, and makes a poor attempt to get rid of this conversation topic as soon as he can. 

“Can we maybe not talk about your husband?”

Veronicas legs unfold again and are placed on the floor as she leans forward, heckles clearly raised, the glare of her eyes, curl of her lip and hand curling to a fist to rest her hand on making her look inexplicably feline..

“And why pray tell is my husband an off topic conversation” 

She’s backed him into a corner now, on the defence and he certainly is defenceless 

“I mean no particular reason, just isn’t it I don’t know a bit weird considering our … history” 

They both pull faces at the word history, oversimplification of the century he probably thinks, although he’s sure his 10th grade history teacher would argue that would be his retelling of the civil war. 

“Oh come on Archie that was nearly a decade ago” she haughtily replies

And even though he’s just described their relationship as history, hearing her cast it off so nonchalantly with a wave of her hand hurts a lot more than he’d like to admit. 

“Anyway” she continues settling back into the loveseat, “I think it’s fair to say we’re both very open sexual people, and Archie any copy of cosmo will tell you it’s healthy to discuss ones relationships and sex life with people” 

“Not with your exes Veronica” he spits 

She bristles a bit at this and he’s so confused as to where this random confident facade has come from ever since Chad’s name came out of his mouth. 

“It’s just weird… and once we talk about current relationships, that can lead us into past relationships and that is certainly dangerous territory I don’t think either of us would like to go into.” he adds sternly 

She’s looking down at her nails now, pretending not to have heard a word he said and Archie is reminded of how useless arguing with Veronica is, she’ll rile you up until you snap and then once you do act like you were the only one who was ever angry. 

“Look, maybe one day we can discuss… anything” his softer tone seems to gain her attention again as she glances in his direction, “But we’ve hardly had a full conversation alone since we all came back to Riverdale. I’ve spent most of my time with Betty, and you Chad or Jughead, so to go from pleasantries to let me tell you all about how fantastic my husband is -” 

“I think” she replies, cutting him off and drawing out every letter of the word, “If we’re not allowed to talk about past or current relationships then that surely means Betty Cooper is off the table. Don’t you?”

He’s also now reminded of another reason he rarely argued with her when they were dating. 

Coming from a manipulative and honestly cruel family meant that she always knew just how to twist the knife into his worst mistake and insecurities, meaning she always won the said arguments. 

“Well maybe we can’t talk about anything without it being weird then” he retorts. 

She doesn’t respond, just folds her arms and turns her head away from slightly. 

He may have won this argument, but he so wishes he was wrong about this one. 

X 

His phone is dead, so he has no longer how long their silence has lasted but he guesses it must be at least forty minutes, possibly even an hour. 

They’re still not speaking, but they have started a game of rolling this pen across the table to one another with their feet and seeing how long it can last until the pen falls off the table and neither of them can be bothered to pick it up. 

Veronica flicks the pen with her foot and it slowly rolls to the middle of the table before it comes to a stop. They both reach with their feet to lay stake to the bic pen, but in doing so her feet end up touching the small sliver of his ankle that isn’t covered by shoes or pants, and he lets out a small gasp at how cold her feet still are. 

For one second Archie never believed the rumors that Veronica was a cruel and cold ice Queen during high school, but he is starting to believe that she could possibly be made of actual ice considering the perpetual state of coldness she’s always in. 

He’s thinking about all the sweatshirts he lost to her over the years and how he now understands why considering he’s been told multiple times he’s like a human furnace and that Veronica really is the opposite, when the rare occasion of an idea enters his mind. 

Jumping up from the couch and grinning at her inquisitive look, he extends a hand out to her which she takes to stand and immediately lets go of afterwards.

“I have an idea of how we can both keep warm” he says still with a grin on his face. 

X

Switching on the light to the boys changing room, Archie heads over to one of the lockers at the end and pulls it open, glad that it’s still kept in the same place after all these years. 

“How does it manage to smell like B.O and axe body spray in here” Veronica asks not daring to actually step foot into the room, “there’s not even any boys in here”, she adds clearly disgusted at how such an unpleasant smell can linger for so long. 

Archie interrupts her complaining by dragging a tub out of one of the rusted lockers, the sound of the box hitting the floor echoing throughout the entire changing room. 

He digs around the lost and found box for a while, before pulling out an incredibly faded Riverdale High navy sweatshirt. 

“You expect me to wear that” Veronica asks incredulously

Archie expected that she wouldn’t be too happy at his solution, but he also figures that if she wants to keep warm she’d take the sacrifice. 

He once saw her wear Jughead’s flannel in a vain attempt to stay warm at a fireworks display.

Betty and Archie teased them about it for weeks. 

He grabs a sweatshirt for him as well as some sweatpants for her, figuring that if he can actually convince her to wear the top then the pants aren’t that much of a stretch. 

When he holds them out to her she responds by scrunching up her nose.

He opens his mouth ready to combat her protests at the idea of wearing such cheap polyester clothing, or whatever the hell the stuff is made of. Instead she reaches out to take the gym wear, mumbles a thanks and tucks a stray piece of hair behind her ear as she tugs the pants on. 

By the time Archie has managed to pull his sweatshirt over his head, that is admittedly a little too tight, she has both the pants and hoodie on, and frankly she looks ridiculous. 

Somehow he had managed to forget how truly tiny Veronica actually is, her hands and feet have been totally covered by the navy and grey material and the top alone is enough to cover her up to her knees. 

“Don’t you dare say a word Andrews” she remarks, but he can see a small smile on her face. 

Second of the night. 

Stepping forward he takes one of her arms in his hands and slowly rolls over the sleeves so that her wrist becomes visible again, and then does the same for the other. Her eyes are transfixed on the floor, but his are completely focused on her. At one point his bare fingers touch her bare palms and he can hear them both take a sharp intake of breath. 

Then her eyes slowly move upwards, as if she’s trying to commemorate every detail of this interaction when they finally reach his face and Archie is completely gone. 

Her eyelashes seem to reach her eyebrows as she looks up at him, and the way her big brown eyes are so full of emotion remind Archie of those silent film stars from the 20’s. 

She steps away slightly, just slightly, and clears her throat. 

“You know” she whispers, “When I put this on, I for some reason expected it to smell like you” 

It takes Archie all of his will power and then some to not fall to his knees and bury his head into her legs. Somehow he remains standing. 

He doesn’t realise that her hands were still in his palms, until she removes them and fully steps back this time. 

“I’m sorry” she says shaking her head “That was… really obviously breaking the rule we set up before” 

“It’s fine” he manages to croak out. 

A beat of silence

And another one. 

“Seriously Veronica, it’s fine” he says this time, sounding more like himself, “It was probably impossible for our relationship to not come up at all during the night…”

“And now that it has-”

“And now that it has” he sighs “well maybe we can get through this night with a little less awkwardness” 

“I would like that” she says nodding

“Me too” he replies

When he moves forward to open the door to head back to the student lounge, Veronica grabs onto his hand again and he tries to convince himself that the reason his skin erupts into goosebumps is because his body is still cold despite all the extra layers he now has on, and nothing to do with her dainty fingers wrapped around his wrist.

They take a detour to one of the history rooms and Archie manages to push one of the old projectors to the student lounge, even with the rusted wheels. 

Because of the projector it takes them an extra few minutes to actually make it back to the lounge, Veronica heads through the doors first and when Archie finally enters he sees that Veronica has sat herself on the red couch too. 

He positions the projector at the blank wall ahead of them, reaches down to the tray underneath and pulls out all of the DVD’s wiping them with the sleeve of his top to try and see past the dust and what the actual titles are. 

“So it looks like we have a choice between Schindler's List, The Great Escape, Dunkirk or…” he takes a pause, “some german, I think, film that I really don’t want to try and pronounce” 

“Oh Dunkirk, definitely” Veronica replies, and when Archie throws her a pointed look she retaliates, “what it is not just because Harry Styles is in it!” 

They watch Dunkirk for what Archie assumes is around thirty minutes, but he stops focusing around 30 seconds in when Veronica swings her legs onto the couch from the floor and places her feet in his lap, instinctively his wrist circles her ankle. It terrifies him how easy it is to fall back into a pattern with her, it terrifies him even more that in just a few hours this pattern will be disrupted again. 

He lasts another five minutes of the film before he confesses to Veronica that he has absolutely no idea what is happening, she tries to explain the non-chronological timeline to him but he still doesn’t really understand. 

They end up ditching the movie, and both rejoice when they find some VHS tapes underneath all the war films that seem to be those sex-ed videos the goverment was forced to distribute once every ten years or so since the 1950’s right through to the early 90’s. When Ted Danson and a young looking Jason Bateman appear in one of them, Veronica is giggling so hard that she has to clutch onto his thigh to try and compose herself . 

They reach the even more chivalrous videos from the 50’s that instruct all of the rules a man should follow in order to be a gentleman, they take turns taking imaginary shots for all of these supposed codes Archie had broke whilst they were dating (getting a father’s approval before a first date, the obvious sex before marriage, no wandering hands and the man always paying for the date to name a few.) 

The tape starts talking about the proper etiquette for a ‘shindig’ when Veronica starts worrying her lip. 

“Hey Archie” she asks, shuffling even closer to him so their thighs are practically touching.

“Mhmm” he responds, voice gravelly as he forces his eyes to focus on the screen and not her face which is now only inches from his. 

“Do you ever wonder what it would have been like if we had a normal high school experience like these kids”

He flexes his fingers which are resting on the back of the couch and around Veronica’s shoulders trying to think of an answer

“Well I’m pretty sure these teens were in high school during a world war, so I’m not too sure I would have liked that experience, no.”

She scoffs and shoves him lightly in the chest. 

“You know I don’t mean that… I mean high school with no murder or schemes or y’know gargoyle king’s”

He ponders again and exhales a deep breath before finally answering. 

“I try not to.” he says with a certain finality, “and honestly, I think it’s sort of ridiculous that the whole town tries to blame all of their issues on the town itself, like we would all be completely fine non fucked people if we didn’t live here, or-or that before everything truly went to shit that everything was fine.” 

He finds himself getting worked up years of pent up frustrations trying to slowly slip their way out, the heel of Veronica’s palm rubbing circles on his shoulder blades, coaxing the frustrations back in. 

“But honestly Veronica…” he says finally looking to her, “ I don’t think I was a very happy person when everything was normal in Riverdale, there was a lot of issues that were lurking behind closed doors that I don’t think would have ever been discussed if danger wasn’t always round the corner”

“I think I get it” she replies, moving so she’s resting on her knees, elbows propped up on the back of the couch, right next to his arm.

“I didn’t necessarily have the normal teenage experience in New York, unless being a character out of Euphoria classes as a normal experience, but as much as I hate to admit it I like the person I became in Riverdale, much more than me n-, much more than me before”

He contemplates questioning her on whether she was going to say the person she is now, she opens her mouth like she has more to say however, so he lets her continue. 

“Being in Riverdale made me grow up physically and emotionally, and I’m glad that happened sooner rather than later,” she says nodding her head like she’s trying to convince herself. 

He figures that this is the case for most of the Riverdale kids, forced to grow up because of one kind of horrific trauma or another. Most of them may not be close anymore, hell most of them don’t keep in contact at all but they will always share the bond of growing up in this crazy environment together, whether they like it or not- and Archie figures that most of them don’t. 

“Anyway” he adds, worried that they’re going to get lost down memory lane if the conversation goes any further “If there’s one thing that the army taught me, it’s that you can’t dwell on past mistakes, or even in the past in general. You have to move on” 

The look on her face is unreadable, possibly confused as if she’s trying to decipher the information he has just given her, and he hopes she realizes that the mistakes he was talking about had nothing to with her, never with her. 

They fall into another silence, this time a comfortable one, they’re both facing each other; Archie has one leg on the couch with the other on the floor and his right arm is stretched on top of the couch, whilst Veronica has her head resting on his arm. 

She has her eyes closed, and he should be worried that she has fallen asleep, not wanting to spend a night locked in the school with no company and a dead arm. 

Instead he takes the time to refamiliarise himself with her face, he’s glad that it hasn’t changed much he’s not surprised that no signs of aging have shown still as smooth and poreless from when they were eighteen. Despite how adorable she looked with her red nose, he’s glad to see that it’s gone and she’s probably not freezing half to death anymore. 

He’s trying to figure out if it’s the winter weather that has stolen away the smattering of freckles that used to be barely visible on her forehead or if he’d remembered her wrong and they were purely a figment of his imagination, when her breathing starts to become labored. 

Selfishly, he reaches out and tugs on one of the silky raven strands of her hair, similar to the length it was when they first met and without the waves she had when they were dating that he loved so much. 

Stretching as she wakes up and exposing the underside of her jaw to him as she does so, Archie knows that she catches him lingering a little too long this time. 

“I’m sorry Veronica but if I have to spend god knows how many hours stuck in this building then you’re gonna have to at least provide me some company”

“Well, I’m sorry Archie, but if you want me to stay awake during these god forsaken hours then you’re gonna have to at least find something more entertaining for us to do than watching videos that are probably from when our grandparents went to this school” 

An impish grin covers Archie’s face as he thinks of all the possibilities available for them in a somewhat abandoned high school. 

X 

They spend the next couple of hours doing all sorts of dumb, mindless and teenage type things to fill the time.

They start off by having a race down the corridors on the linoleum floor on the teacher’s chairs, and of course Archie wins by a landslide, they agree on a rematch but Veronica refuses to play anymore, when the cuff of the sweatpants that she’s wearing catch on the wheel of the chair and she ends up skidding across the floor. Hearing the crash Archie runs over to help her up, once she’s back on her feet she makes a futile attempt of dusting off the already grimy sweatpants to no avail. She has fury in her eyes when she looks up at Archie, but as soon as they make eye contact they both end up back on the floor in peels of laughter, leaning against the lockers that used to belong to them. 

Deciding to leave any risk of injury at a minimum, they agree to stop with the high risk sports. Archie finds a working black sharpie, amongst all the dried up ones in one of the math classes and they take it in turns graffitiing all of their least favorite teachers photos around the school and it’s fair to say that Mr. Beaker’s portraits receive the most vandalism and twirly moustaches (they also decide to skip on the commemorative one of Mr. Honey because you know, respect the dead and all that). 

Once the adrenaline of their silly antics runs off they’re both left with the overwhelming sensation of hunger and the realisation it must have been at least six hours since either of them have eaten anything. 

The next thirty minutes is spent with Veronica kneeling at the cafeteria door using all sorts of utensils to try and break open the flimsy lock sat on the handles. 

A compass from a maths room seems to do the trick, and when the lock clatters to the floor they both cheer in excitement. 

The cafeteria is colder than the rest of the school, and Archie knows that the back where all of the food is kept will be considerably colder due to the fact the majority of it’s frozen. He tells Veronica to find a seat and that he’ll have a look in the freezers to see if he can find anything edible for them and he laughs at her sigh of relief at the prospect of not having to be any colder than she already is. 

He isn’t in the back for long, after mooching around for a few minutes he manages to pry open one of the many freezers that is frosted shut and is met with endless vats of frozen unidentifiable objects. Leaving defeated, when he returns back to the rows of tables in the cafeteria his eyes immediately drift to the table next to the pillar: the one he, Veronica, Betty and Jughead used to frequent. 

Past blends with present when he sees that modern day Veronica is also sat at that table.

He walks over to the table, hands in his pockets ready to admit defeat when his hands come into contact with something cold and smooth- money. 

Like a kid with a candy allowance he jogs over to the one working vending machine in the room, with pep back in his step, and he can honestly admit that he’s never been so happy to be in the presence of two dollars before. 

He manages to scrape enough change to buy them a packet of unbranded chips and a granola bar he’s slightly suspicious of and heads back to where Veronica is sat, arms folded on the table and head in between them. 

He unceremoniously dumps the chips and the bar on the table in front of her, her head snaps up at the sound of food, and he can tell she’s trying to hide the look of disappointment on her face- but she doesn’t do it very well. 

“Now you can’t say I never bought our dinner on dates” he laughs, and she rolls her eyes and there’s a sense of normalcy to the conversation, like this is the type of interaction they have everyday and not for the first time in seven years, falling back into Veronica is just so effortless it doesn’t really feel like falling at all. 

He sits down on the floor: back against the pillar, one leg stretched out in front of him and the other propping his elbow up and he winces at the cold of the floor he can feel through his jeans. 

Veronica is also wincing, not at his obvious discomfort of course, but the smell of the chips she’s just opened. She gives them another sniff and delicately places one on the tip of her tongue before chewing. 

After having a grand total of three she holds the bag out in front of Archie as a gesture, he shakes his head and tells her he’s fine. 

He doesn’t know why he denies the offer, he is truly starving after all. 

“Archie Andrews, I have had to listen to your stomach make noises like a failing car engine for the past forty five minutes, so for my sake if not yours can you please just eat some of these most likely radioactive crisps”

Never being one to deny Veronica Lodge, Archie reaches out and swiftly takes the bag from her hands that he hopes portrays the ‘fine if I have to’ annoyance he wanted to convey. 

He always knew Veronica was some-what of a picky eater because of her upbringing, but he can’t deny that she’s right about these chips. He wouldn’t be surprised that once he actually manages to get out of this school he turns green and develops an alter-ego called the incredible Archie because of radiation poisoning. 

Yet despite both of their concerns regarding the nutrition of the chips they spend the next few minutes slowly passing the bag back and forth to one another, trying to savor the little taste it provides. 

When the chips are finished Veronica folds the packet into a neat little triangle before pushing it to the end of the table, and both their eyes turn towards the granola bar. 

“So” Archie announces “Are we gonna start on the granola bar now?” 

Veronica huffs “Honestly I swear down every male on this planet has the will power of Eve herself, and people say it’s women who led to the downfall of man because they were tempted” 

Archie doesn’t fail to notice that the whole time she was speaking her hands were moving closer to the bar and by the time she had finished her sentence it was in her hands. 

Another five minutes or so go by as they now slowly pass a granola bar between the two of them like they’re some sort of castaways and not two fully nourished and healthy adults who will have full access to all sorts of establishments in about 5 hours time. 

To be fair, Archie is actually quite glad they’re taking their time with the granola bar because he’s slowly running out of things to do or say and boredom is really starting to kick in. 

She must be feeling the same way as she keeps on rolling her neck, eyes drifting shut and pushing her temple with her forefingers. 

Worried that he’s been staring at her for too long, Archie forces his eyes to wander around the cafeteria to try and see how much has changed since he was last in here. 

The answer is essentially nothing. 

Giving up his pretense, he lets his eyes settle back onto her and is met with the sight of her yanking at the drawstring on the hoodie she’s wearing. 

He arches his brow at her trying to understand what she’s apparently attempting to do, even more confused when she starts to gather her hair up in what appears to be the world's messiest ponytail, and he would know he’s seen Veronica’s air in some interesting states over the years and in many beds… and other surfaces. 

Even though she’s still facing away from him, she must have caught on that he was throwing her a series of perplexed and confused faces. 

Sighing, she lets go of her hair and slumps her shoulders, the drawstring dangling and traipsing along the floor. 

“I’m trying to tie my hair up, it is practically impossible for me to sleep or be comfortable when my hair is constantly obscuring my view, so I thought I would try and tie it with the string, obviously to no avail as I can’t reach." 

His first thought is to wonder when she started wearing her hair up to bed, because the Veronica he knew would avoid putting her hair in a ponytail unless it was absolutely necessary (which it never was). 

He then wonders what other details have changed about her that are so miniscule only someone who knew her as well as he did would notice.

Was her favorite nail varnish color still maroon? 

Did she still make sure her next read had at least a four star on Good Reads?

Does she still like to play with her significant other's ears? Or was that just for him? 

His second thought was How can I help?

Because like he said, he’s never one to deny her of anything, even if it's just a helping hand. 

Using his left hand to pat the empty space next to him, he uses the right one to beckon her over which she happily obliges to. 

He pretends not to hear the tiny squeak she emits when she sits on the cool floor, and he’s also grateful that she’s sat with her back to him because he doesn’t think he’d be able to handle seeing her face while doing this. 

He gathers her hair at the nape of her neck, his whole body tense as he resists the urge to press his thumb at the underside of her jaw. 

He leans further forward telling himself it's so he can reach the errand strands that hang in front of her face, he doesn’t have to move any further though, because she’s met him in the middle and is almost leaning back onto his weight. 

He lets out a stuttered breath and admires the way it makes small ripples in her hair, any physical effect his body has on hers making him smug, no matter how small. 

At this distance he can smell the same perfume she wore throughout high school. Glad that some things have stayed the same. 

He slides his hands into her hair, calloused fingers moving up, up, up as he pushes her hair higher off the base of her neck. 

He is fully prepared for the gasp she lets out due to the contact between her scalp and his cold hands from the floor, what Archie is not expecting however is the moan that follows.

His hand stills in her hair. 

Their erratic breathing which has only ever been the only sound in the room seems to have been put on the intercoms, because there is no way it was this loud previously. 

But when Veronica turns her head towards the right and crashes her lips to his, all the sound melts away again. 

It’s not a perfect kiss, by any definition of the word. 

The angle that Veronica is at mustn’t be comfortable for her, their teeth keep on clashing and she bites down on his bottom lip so hard that it crosses the border of pleasure and pain, straight into old fashioned regular pain . He’s licking into her mouth, when her hands go to grab his ears and the mere inches that separate their bodies seems to becoming a bigger issue by the second. 

Roughly grabbing her hips, he twists her round so that she’s straddling him, the sudden movement causing a strangled moan to leave her mouth that Archie feels at his dick immediately.

He uses one hand to cup the back of her (loose thank you very much) hair and the other to wrap around her waist, his possessive instincts revelling in the fact his arm can easily envelop around her whole figure. 

She stops kissing him and he doesn’t even have the time to comprehend the obscenely large string of saliva that comes between them, or worry about the fact that they’ve actually stopped kissing and that he’s just helped someone commit adultery. 

Because before he even has time to take another breath, her swollen lips are attaching themselves to the pulsepoint on his throat and now he’s the one letting out a choked moan. With his arm around her waist, and now his hand splayed across her back he can feel the way she’s setting a rhythm, essentially riding his thigh. 

And fuck is it hot. 

But dry humping was tacky for the two of them and he’s not gonna have his one night with her end in them orgasiming with all their clothes on. 

Carefully, he lowers them both to the ground, hands sneaking up past the sweatshirt and the t-shirt underneath straight to the band of her bra as he does so. 

Well accustomed to the nature of each other’s body she immediately responds by wrapping a leg around his waist and he’s now the one covering her neck in kisses. His right forearm takes most of the weight as he moves on top of her, but when he entwines their left hands together, her wedding ring digs into his finger. 

Immediately he thinks of another circumstance, where they’re in this exact same position except it’s not the first time in seven years. 

And they’re not on the dirty floor of a school cafeteria, but in a bed, their own bed in their own house. 

And the ring she’s wearing is a lot smaller, but he swears he saved up for it for at least half a year. 

And he doesn’t mind that the ring is biting into his hand, because it’s a mark of their love, and his ring would be doing the same to her too. 

But instead this ring digs and buries its way under his skin, screaming at him not yours, not yours, not yours. 

He’s taken out of his reverie, by Veronica’s high pitched whine. 

She untagles their hands and pushes them against his chest, and Archhie’s worried that he accidentally said any of that loud. 

“Archie” she pants

And he thinks this is it, it’s over. 

“The floor is too cold” 

“Right” he rasps nodding at her rapidly, “Right, yeah so we could….” 

“Chair?” she asks, cocking her head to the side, looking way too adorable for all of the sinful stuff he’s planning to do with her in his head. 

“Fantastic idea” he quips

Thankfully he manages to stand up without falling over and embarrassing himself and once again he sees himself extending out a hand to her, to try and help her up.

Once they’re both standing they race each other to see who can take their clothes off the quickest, a game they used to play when they knew they only had limited time because Fred would be back from taking Vegas out for a walk. 

They both laugh when Archie’s too tight shirt gets stuck to his body and Veronica has to help him pull it off, by the time it’s finally over his eyes Veronica is stood in front of him, in nothing but lacy emerald underwear, and he’s so painfully hard that he’s worried this is going to be over quicker than either of them would like it to be. Veronica slowly walks over to him, flipping her hair out of the way in the process, flexing her wrists as she does so. Her index finger pokes him right in the center of his chest, not wanting her to have all the control he grabs her wrist and places open mouthed kisses to her pulse, travelling up her hand and sucking on the finger she just prodded him with .

Cocking an eyebrow at him, he releases the finger and she now puts a whole hand on his chest, and he wonders if she remembers that’s where his scar is, before walking him backwards towards the chair. 

His knees hit the back of the plastic and he falls onto the seat with a grunt, she quickly follows by swinging one of her legs over his hip, straddling him once again. 

He feels overwhelmed with everything he’s trying to do, say and memorize. His eyes flit over her body trying to categorize every mole, freckle and mark to see if it already existed in his memory, when she leans forward to whisper 

“You might want to do something” 

He smiles and whispers sorry, but they both know he doesn’t mean it. 

His fingers delve into her panties, even though he can feel how soaked she is through his boxers, but before he can do anything, she’s coaxing them back out and shaking her head. 

“Not necessary”

“Well maybe I want to” he huffs

He can tell she’s thinking about responding, but when she grinds down hard on his crotch he decides he’s going to shut up. Trying something else, he goes back to the pulsepoint of her neck, but once again she’s steering him away

This time he does give her a puzzled look. 

“I can’t have any marks” she pants

He responds by kissing her, if he can’t leave any physical evidence of what happened here tonight then he can at least make sure that she remembers the way he kissed her. Her hands unwrap themselves from around his neck and make their way down his abs and sneak their way into the band of his boxers, he hisses in response and has to bury his face in her neck to hide the screwed up look on his face. 

She rises slightly, and Archie guesses this is the opportunity to shmmy off his boxers, erection finally free. 

Being raised right Archie manages to gasp out “do you have a condom? I- I don’t have any”

“No I don’t either” she pauses, “but as a married woman I’m clean and on the pill- are you seeing anyone?” stroking his face with her thumb in the process

He lets his mind skip over the married woman comment and also lets his mind clear of all the late nights round huddled tables and potential ‘what if’s’ with Betty. 

“No,” he shakes his head, “no one for me” he adds 

The ‘but you’ is silent. 

She climbs back onto the chair, and is just about to sink down onto him when she pauses again and grabs him by the face, thumb under his chin tilting his head up. 

“This is a one time thing, right?” 

He files away the fact she seems like she’s trying to convince herself of this fact too for later, and nods his head in response.

When he enters Veronica for the first time in seven years, his head immediately snaps back, and their twin cries can probably be heard from outside the building. 

Luckily, Veronica seems to be taking charge of setting the rhythm as Archie doesn’t have the power to do much of anything at this second, except place his hand on the small of her back again, trying to keep all distance minimal. 

He forces himself to open his eyes and is met with the sight of Veronica moving up and down him, lip in between her teeth, one hand making it’s way down to her clit and the other placed right over her heart. 

He feels like he should say something, the only sound to be heard the visceral one of their bodies, echoing throughout the large empty room. 

Distantly, in the back of his mind he thinks that this is probably the only place in the entire school they never fucked in. 

“You know” Veronica gasps “this is” moan, “prob- probably” some sort of strangled noise “the only room in this building we’ve never fucked in” she finishes in one breath. 

Archie chuckles, and at the sound of his laughter Veronica opens her eyes. 

They’re silent once again as they look at each other, and by the way Veronica is clenching around him he can tell she’s close. 

He moves his hand up to her throat, index finger under her jaw as he pushes his thumb into her mouth, watching as she swirls her tongue around it. 

Maintaining their eye contact they both watch as the other comes undone, tense jaws and mouths open but silent.

They sit on the chair for what is probably way too long, Veronica idly moving her fingers across the scar she apparently did remember, whilst he sets himself the task of trying to remove all of the hair stuck to her face. 

“You know” he says, voice lowered an octave, “we should probably put some clothes on again, considering that you’re already feeling the cold” 

He leans forward pretending to kiss her shoulder, but instead his hand flicks her nipple , that has been erect for the past two minutes, Veronica clearly lying when she told him she wasn’t cold.

“Archie” she shrieks one hand covering her chest, still wearing a bra and the other swatting him right on the place she had just been stroking.

She leans back a little and on instinct Archie places his hands on her hips trying to keep her balanced. 

“Honestly?” she says, voice rising at the end of the word like she’s asking a question

“Mhmm” 

“I don’t think I can stand up yet” she says, and he can literally see the heat rising up her neck at the embarrassment. 

On the other hand he can also feel his ego skyrocketing, not only at the statement but at the fact he’s managed to get her to blush. 

“Stop smiling!” she yelps pushing at his chest again, a little harder this time. 

“Ouch, you’re gonna do some real damage soon Veronica” he whines, rubbing at the spot on his chest she just hit.

After a few minutes they do eventually put their clothes on, and Archie thinks that it’s highly unfair that whilst his body is covered in so many hickies it looks like he’s been run over, hers is practically untouched. 

They slowly wander their way back to the student lounge. They’re not holding hands this time, however, Veronica is currently on Archie’s back as he gives her a piggyback through the school as she claims that since it’s his fault she doesn’t have the strength to walk it’s only fair. (Archei would like to note that she was already on his back when she demanded that he should give her said piggyback).

He slows down when they reach the student lounge door, and she jumps off before faltering on the handle. 

They’re both aware that the atmosphere is going to greatly change once they make their way into the room. They’re clearly both tired and in need of sleep after the night's activities, but where they’re gonna sleep is a different question, and whether they’ll be doing it alone is the most important one. 

Archie watches as she literally seems to shake these insecurities off her shoulders, straighten her back and walk into the room with confidence, switching off the lights as she does so. 

Archie however, does not contain this confidence. 

He slowly walks into the room, which is dark but he can still make out Veronica’s figure lying on the red couch and stand there for what feels like forever, but in reality is probably only thirty seconds. 

He’s about to walk over to the other side of the room, when he hears Veronica’s voice from beside the coffee table. 

“You can, you can stay with me you know Archie” she calls out, voice getting smaller with each word. 

“Yeah, yeah I think I will” he replies trying to keep some sort of semblance of having his shit together, completely failing when it cracks on the first word. 

He approaches the red couch and lays down next to her, as stiff as a board and Veronica scoffs at him before rolling over and hooking a leg over his hip again. His thumb sneaks back into the waistband of those god awful sweatpants and he rests his chin on the top of the head. 

They continue with these little movements, each one braver than the last, until Veronica finally starts pressing little kisses against the column of his throat and alongside his jaw. 

“I think” he rasps “you’ve left enough marks on me for one night” 

Her small hands grasp the bunchy material of the hoodie he’s still wearing and she whispers “never” into his ear. 

His eyes flutter shut, as she moves to press light fluttering kisses all over his face and he pretends he can’t feel the tears on his face. 

Both hers and his.

She stops as she gets to his lips, they’re so close that they’re sharing breath and she’s moving forward to kiss him again. 

“We shouldn’t do this” he whispers

“We definitely shouldn’t do this” she replies and he’s 16 again in a dark, cramped space wanting nothing more than for this girl to kiss him. 

“But it’s already been done” she finishes and leans in to press her lips to his. 

It’s softer than the kisses in the cafeteria, starting off as lips simply brushing against one another, the tears get away and he’s certain they both taste salt in their mouths, but he wouldn’t change it for the world. The kisses heat up a little again, hands tangle in hair, hands skim places and delve into the other. 

Veronica wraps her leg around him tighter, trapping him in her embrace (as if he’d ever let go anyway). 

As the kisses grow more intense, the tears dry and are replaced by little hums of satisfaction from the both of them. 

But fires and flames and passion die. 

The kisses become more tame again, moving from lips, to foreheads, to noses, to cheeks. 

They end with their foreheads pressed together, and the persistent fluttering of her eyelashes against his cheek tells him that she's trying to fight off sleep.

He slowly rolls her over so that her back is pressed against his chest, and he too fights sleep for as long as he can knowing that this is all over in the morning. 

The last thing he realises before he drifts off is that she still has her hair down. .

.

X

He wakes up the next morning confused as to why someone is shaking his shoulder and also why there’s a girl in his arms, rather being asleep than woken up he hides his face into the girl's neck when memories of last night come flooding back. 

Recoiling almost immediately he stirs Veronica in the process, ever the quick riser she sits up too, and they’re both met face to face with the school janitor who looks just as tired, if not even more so than they do. 

“Look” he starts, mop in hand “I don’t know what you kids were doing in here but-” 

“Nothing” Veronica interrupts, “Honestly, we just got locked in and crashed on the couch that’s it” 

The janitor doesn’t look convinced and Archie realises that’s probably because:

One: this is the same janitor that worked at the high school when they were students and he definitely had caught them in some awkward scenarios before

Two: Archie knows for a fact that he has a massive hickey on his neck.

Not wanting to frustrate the poor janitor anymore Archie quickly mutters his apologies, takes Veronica’s hand and they practically run out of the school building like giggling school children. 

The outside world greets them with one of the most beautiful sun rises he has ever seen, or maybe it’s just last night's events that makes it look better. 

However, as soon as they’re out of the door of Riverdale High Veronica drops his hand like she’s been burned and holds it in her other. 

Distance between them once again, they both awkwardly make their way towards Veronica’s car. 

“So” she starts, “did you still need a ride?”

If they were still in that high school building he would certainly make a joke about her use of the word ride, but they're not in that school building. They’re in the real world, where she has a husband and he cheated on her seven years ago and one night together means nothing in the grand scheme of things and he’s still stuck in the same goddamn universe where Archie & Veronica can only exist within the realm of a high school.

Instead he politely declines her offer and says now the sun is out he should be okay to make his way home, he tells her to have a safe journey home and she cordially wishes him the same. 

She will go her way, he will go his.

But tonight when he’s lying in bed (alone), ignoring Betty’s calls (again) he’ll tell himself that he mulled over this next interaction carefully and thoughtfully before he decided to speak. 

In reality that’s not true of course.

It tumbled out of his mouth with reckless abandon like he couldn’t stop the words from leaving if he wanted to to (and he doesn’t) 

So, when he looks at the girl he’s most likely, probably, honestly certainly still in love with yet is watching her go home to her husband, he looks at her dead in the eyes flashes one of his all American smiles and says: 

“Goodbye Ronnie” 

He’s not surprised that she seems momentarily startled by the nickname, but in true Veronica fashion she regains composure quickly, flutters her eyelashes at him seductively and replies: 

“Now, behave yourself Archiekins” 

With a flip of her hair, she has her back turned to him and Archie watches as she sets off into the proverbial and literal sunrise.

And when Archie looks down, there’s still an indent of a ring on his left hand finger. 

fin

**Author's Note:**

> Woo ! You made it hope you enjoyed 
> 
> If this fic seems vaguely familiar to you, that’s because I literally stole the idea from 6x15 of Dawsons Creek where Joey and pacey get locked in a store together (go watch it, it’s great) 
> 
> If this fic is a little angstier than usual (which it is) Blame Taylor Swift and Olivia Rodrigo for that 
> 
> (Also if you’re wondering if that video of Ted Danson and Jason Bateman exists - it does, please go watch it) 
> 
> Finally, any comments and kudos are so greatly appreciated and if you would like to talk varchie with me you can find me on Twitter (@ivyxevermore) or tumblr (@ronniesandrxws) 
> 
> \- Eeliz


End file.
